My Papers

Share Workers: The Techniques and Meanings of Sustainable Digital Networking - Open Discussion

This panel brings together a set of experts in the practical and theoretical use of digital networks and infrastructures for sharing. Working across a range of areas from visual art to music, performance and beyond, they are united by their use of collaborative digital tools and driven by their propensity for positive social change.

The information sharing abilities of the internet has vastly extended a pre-existing capacity among artists to communicate with each other about their work and lifestyles. With the arrival of social media and the wave of internet use known as Web 2.0, the ability to share has grown exponentially, becoming a subject in and of itself, and generating experts in the techniques and meanings of sharing. And now, economic down-turn and drastic cuts to funding, these free networks have become invaluable for helping people sustain their practice.

This panel brings together a set of experts in the practical and theoretical use of digital networks and infrastructures for sharing. Working across a range of areas from visual art to music, performance and beyond, they are united by their use of collaborative digital tools and driven by their propensity for positive social change. From consolidating connections between artists and arts policy-makers to rewiring our educational and economic circuitry, this panel has collectively developed a wealth of skills for reaching out to others through technology.

After an introduction from the panel chair, participants will each be given ten minutes to describe the projects and practices that comprise their ‘share work’. Following this, the chair will question them on the intricacies of what they do as well as its impact on the wider art world – a field not normally known for its inclusiveness. As a group they will unpack successful models (alongside some of the inevitable obstacles) to ‘share working’, addressing both the very practical – as well as some of the philosophical – implications of openness in an advanced information age.

Bios of the Participants

Charlotte Frost

Dr. Charlotte Frost is a writer and academic focusing on art's relationship with technology. Producing reviews and discussion on Digital/New Media art for more than ten years, she has worked online and off with a variety of key organisations including Furtherfield, Rhizome and a-n, where she writes a regular column. She is founder and editor of the research project and academic book series, Arts Future Book, which looks at how digital creativity challenges the form and content of the art history/criticism/theory book. She is writing her first book, Art History Online: Mailing Lists, Digital Forums and the Future of Criticism, which comes out in 2012. A member of the CAA Committee on Intellectual Property she is also the founder of PhD2Published, a web resource offering academic book publishing advice to early-career academics. She will be the 2011-2012 International Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Center for 21st Century Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Bridget McKenzie

Bridget McKenzie has 20 years experience in delivering innovative education in museums, galleries and libraries. Her current position is founding director of Flow Associates, a cultural consultancy based in London and Delhi. Before establishing Flow in 2006, Bridget held the post of Head of Learning at the British Library where she implemented a new learning strategy based on creative enquiry. Previous roles include Education Officer for Tate (1993–1998), lead consultant for the Clore Duffield Artworks national art education awards and first co-ordinator of widening participation for the University of the Arts London. Bridget is regarded as a leading thinker on the links between learning, culture, ecology and technology. She writes and speaks on how cultural organisations can tackle the ecological crisis and is co-author of The Happy Museum, a new project on wellbeing and museums in the context of resource scarcity.

Jack Hutchinson

Jack Hutchinson is an artist, writer and educator. A specialist on the role of digital technology within the visual arts, he is Communications Coordinator for AIR: Artists Interaction and Representation through a-n The Artists Information Company. His writing has featured in a diverse range of publications, including Dazed and Confused, Garageland, AnOther Man, Twin Magazine, a-n Magazine and Schweizer Kunst. He is an active campaigner for artistic, legislative and economic measures that enhance artists' working lives and professional status. Hutchinson is also facilitator of the AIR Activists network – active members of AIR recruited to proactively contribute to raising the profile and widening recognition of artists. He has exhibited across the UK and is also a visiting lecturer at a range of HE institutions in England.Dougald Hine is a writer and social activator, the founder of Space Makers Agency and co-founder of School of Everything, the Dark Mountain Project and the Institute for Collapsonomics. He is currently working on a project to create a new kind of university, based in central London. He is also working on a book about "First Life" and "the age of networked disruption".

Dougald Hine

Dougald Hine is a writer and social activator, the founder of Space Makers Agency and co-founder of School of Everything, the Dark Mountain Project and the Institute for Collapsonomics. He is currently working on a project to create a new kind of university, based in central London. He is also working on a book about "First Life" and "the age of networked disruption".

Marcus Romer

Marcus Romer is the Artistic Director of Pilot Theatre, based at York Theatre Royal. He adapted and directed Looking for JJ, by Anne Cassidy, which won the TMA award for best production in 2008. His production of Lord of the Flies for Pilot Theatre has had five national UK tours and received a TMA award nomination and won a Manchester Evening News award. His production of Beautiful Thing won two Manchester Evening News Awards in 2005. He is also a published playwright and he adapted and directed the world premiere of cult classic Rumble Fish. He adapted Bloodtide by Melvin Burgess, Looking for JJ by Anne Cassidy, and Fungus the Bogeyman, by Raymond Briggs. He is currently working on the screenplay for 'The Knife That Killed Me' . This will be a new feature film for Universal Pictures. He created the opening event at the 2007 IIFA Bollywood Oscars at Sheffield Arena, for a live TV audience of 500 million. He has attended TED twice and set up and led the Shift Happens Conferences.

Ruth Catlow

Ruth Catlow is an artist and curator working at the intersection of art, technology and social change. As co-founder, with Marc Garrett, of Furtherfield a grass roots media arts organisation, online community and gallery (formerly HTTP Gallery) in North London, she works with international artists, hackers, curators, musicians, programmers, writers, activists and thinkers. Her current focus is on practices that engage an ecological approach with an interest in the interrelation of technological and natural processes. Ruth has been involved with developing networked participatory arts infrastructures such as VisitorsStudio and NODE.London. She is currently developing a new partnership initiative with Furtherfield and Drake Music drawing on existing knowledge and experience and emerging models of peer to peer organisation and production. Ruth has worked in Higher Education for over 15 years and is currently running degrees in Digital Art and Design Practice and developing a new MA in Fine Art and Environment at Writtle School of Design.